April 15, 2013

Monday

Tax Day. I arrive at the post office five minutes before they open. We wait in a civilized line in front of the gate, filing in like animals after they open. While waiting in line, a man yells at the lone woman working behind the postal counter, "Can we get someone else out here?" I guess he doesn't feel he deserves to wait that long.

It is so cold and windy that during our brisk walk through the park, I fear the sunlight will blow away too.

In the evening I drive the five blocks to Safeway, to avoid the cold and I judge myself as a wimp. I am so spoiled, that I have not shopped regularly at Safeway in years. As I walk through the crowded-after-work-shopping aisles with bad Pop music booming through the speakers, I begin to smile. Suddenly, I am so happy to be out amongst ordinary people.  I can't stop smiling. I see the beauty in their ordinariness, the elderly lady, the yippie guy on his cell phone, the black lady with her solemn kids, the Mexican guy in his construction clothes. You may get all politically correct and say I am stereotyping, but I am not, I am just recounting what I saw. I see humanity and its beauty, and we are all part of it, no matter who we are or what we are or where we came from. I felt like I belonged.

In the self-check out line, which is so long it is almost to the doors, I am a little surprised at the length of the line. What surprises me even more is the lack of surprise of anyone else. Each party takes their place at the back of the line like it were any other day and no one yells, "Can we get someone else out here?"